#10
I agree Frank. I know you will appreciate this: this a.m. at a morning P.T. run I asked my peers - "are we the crazy ones or is it the 51% of adult electorate that are fucking idiots?". All of them, highly educated, sharp, family men, patriots to the fucking core, men who have been in combat, Iraq, Afghan, etc - they know what a leader is, they know what it is to lead companies or battalions in CONUS or overseas -- to a man -- we are dismayed at last night's results. We don't get it. I don't get it. Actually, that's wrong, I do get it. We have a society of non-stoic, poorly educated, history-challenged, what's-in-it-for-me types that can now vote. 40yrs of piss-poor indoctrinated public schools are bearing fruit. And as you so aptly said - the American electorate will get what they wanted. The road to serfdom will just continue unabated. I fear for our constitution and the country my children will fall in on.

#12
Many years ago, my late father-in-law - who was in Illinois politics for a while - told me the American people get a much better level of government than they deserve. I thought it pretty cynical, at the time, but have come to understand what he meant. Broadhead 6 explained it.

#13
Yes America has changed. It's far more urban, not just in the civic boundaries, but in attitude. When Detroits go belly up, the people just displace to another urban area, they don't go back to the old homesteads. It's an environment of delicate balance held in place by myriads of systems, just like the body. How fragile that system was amply demonstrated by Katrina and now by Sandy. Humans seek to bring control over their environment and in doing so will trade freedoms with its vagaries for promises that in the long run won't be able to be kept. Carpe diem.

When the light switch doesn't magically come on, when the toilets won't flush, when the refuge won't disappear, when the fuel doesn't appear at the pump, when the food vanishes, they really can't comprehend why. It's one big Cargo Cult. There is no cause->effect connection. Their solution is to scream louder, throw tantrums, and find someone who'll bring back the magic. Urban dependency.

#23
The more I think about it the more I wonder if America voted for socialism or simply for Obama (and his coat tails). Remember that he wasn't on the ticket in 2010 and the Republicans cleaned up. He can do a lot of damage of course, but those projecting the end of the Republicans are jumping the gun a bit.

(Sh.M.Network)--Somali security forces carried out on Tuesday a house to house search in Mogadishu, arresting dozens of suspected Al-Shabaab... the personification of Somali state failure...Islamic fascistitogether with their weapons, police said.

The operations occurred in Yaqshid district early on Tuesday morning as pacification operations continue in the Horn of Africa nation after the capture of the city last year in 2011 from Al shabab bad turbans.

Mogadishu, Somali capital has seen series of massive arrests since last September when Somali MPs elected Hassan Sheikh Mohamud as a president for a federal republic government, for the first time in Somali history for more than 42 years.

The bad turban group has also come under pressure from Uganda, Burundi and Sierra Leone soldiers who recently pushed out them out of the outskirts of Somali capital Mogadishu and other key regions they used to control two years ago.

#1
Sounds so good. Unfortunately, it's like getting up off the crapper and turning one's ass towards the empty toilet paper roll hanger before pulling up one's pants. There's a feeling the job is done, but the stench remains...

[An Nahar] An Egyptian policeman was shot and critically maimed in Sinai on Tuesday when gunnies opened fire on a police patrol, days after three coppers were killed in an ambush in the restive peninsula.

The officer was shot in the neck in the northern city of El-Arish, the site of the deadly attack on Saturday.

The interior minister sacked Sinai's security chief on Sunday after policeman protested following the killings of their colleagues.

Security in the desert and mountainous region collapsed after an uprising ousted president Hosni Mubarak...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... in February 2011.

Since then, several krazed killer attacks in the Sinai, which borders Israel and the Gazoo Strip, have targeted police and soldiers, including a brazen August 5 ambush on an army outpost that killed 16 soldiers.

The military launched a wide-ranging campaign after that attack to flush out krazed killers, but drive-by shootings have continued.

[Shabelle] At least two people have been maimed in the Kenyan capital when a bomb was set off in the Eastleigh neighbourhood of Nairobi, the latest in a string of attacks, police say.

"Two people have sustained injuries and rushed to hospital ... it was a very powerful kaboom," said Wilfred Mbithi, head of police operations in the city, on Tuesday.

Bomb experts scoured the scene after the blast, which was set off on a bridge as people travelled on busy streets to work on Tuesday morning, and is suspected to have been an improvised bomb, Mbithi said.

"I just heard a loud blast and as I ran, people shouted at me saying I was bleeding," said one victim who only identified himself as John, before he was taken to hospital.

Kenya Red Thingy said three people were maimed in the blast, some with minor injuries.

No group immediately grabbed credit for the attack, which took place in a neighbourhood that is home to many Somalis, as well as ethnic Somali Kenyans.

Suspected Kenyan supporters of Somalia's al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab cut-throats have carried out a string of attacks in opposition to Nairobi sending troops into Somalia last year to fight the cut-thoats.

Mbithi said investigations were being carried out to see if the blast was linked to the Shabaab.

The blast comes a day after attackers hurled a grenade into a church in the northeastern town of Garissa, close to the Somali border, killing one policeman and wounding 14 people.

[Ynet] Persian Gulf state says cooled for a few yearsYouse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! four suspects in Manama bombing that killed two; says Shiite militia's fingerprints evident

Public Security Chief Major-General Tariq Al Hassan said in a statement published by the official Bahrain News Agency (BNA) the suspects were juggedKeep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! after prosecutors issued arrest warrants and police were hunting for other killers.

The five home-made bombs on Monday bore the hallmarks of Hezbollah, the Shiite group allied with Iran, authorities said.

"Their terrorist practices prove that they have been trained outside the kingdom," BNA said. "The hallmarks of Hezbollah are crystal clear."

The Sunni Mohammedan-dominated, US-aligned Bahrain government has been struggling since early last year to suppress pro-democracy unrest led mainly by the Gulf Arab kingdom's majority Shiite Mohammedans.

BNA quoted Information Minister Samira Ibrahim bin Rajab as saying the bombings were staged by terrorist groups trained outside Bahrain and based in countries including Leb.

She said the groups were operating under principles set by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and that 19 pro-Iran satellite media channels were inciting their supporters in Bahrain to subvert the government.

The blasts in the capital Manama on Monday killed two street cleaners and maimed another, according to state media.

Some opposition activists have suggested the attacks, which came a few days after the government banned opposition gatherings with the stated goal of ensuring public safety, could have been the work of forces trying to justify the clampdown.

The government has repeatedly accused Shiite Iran of fomenting the turmoil, a charge the Islamic Theocratic Republic denies. Hezbollah denies involvement in the Bahrain protests, but has criticized the government's handling of them.

Bahraini police said they have been the target of numerous attacks with homemade bombs since April, including one that killed a policeman last month.

They hate us because we have not surrendered to the surrender of Islam, Mr. Hypocrite. All the rest is mere situational justification. Because if it were all about those we help, then logically the helpees would love us loudly, instead of also hating us.

[Yemen Post] Fighters of the Popular Resistance Committees have been enclosing Tariq al-Fadhali inside his house in Zinjbar of Abyan governorates since Monday, local sources affirmed.

The sources said Al-Fadhali, a son of a former sultan of Abyan, escorted by hundreds of armed men returned on Monday to Zinjibar, pointing out that his escorts carried different kinds of weapons.

Security officials told Almasdar Online that the security authorities in Abyan called al-Fadhali to surrender himself to the authorities after one day of a strict blockade imposed against his residency.

Local sources said that the security committee of Abyan presided over by the governor Jamal Al-Aqel met on Tuesday and called al-Fadhali to surrender himself to avoid any bloodshed. The sources said that al-Fadhali is wanted by justice authorities after the Attorney General ordered in September to arrest him after due to his incitement against the Yemeni Social Party and its leaders. The committee denounced the" collusion" of some military commanders who allowed al-Fadhali to return to Zinjbar and held them responsible to any consequences, the sources added. PRC alleges that al-Fadhali supported Ansar Al-Sharia, an al-Qaeda-linked group, that captured some districts of Abyan last year before the military backed by PRC cleansed its militants.

Al-Fadhali had left Zinjibar of Abya after clashes escalated between the army and al-Qaeda militants in last June.

The General Secretariat of the Yemeni Socialist Party has accused Tariq Al-Fadhali of plotting to kill its leaders and cadres, dubbing him as al-Qaeda terrorist and asking the authorities to swiftly arrest and prosecute him.

[Bangla Daily Star] Activists of the Jamaat-e-Islami...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... and Islami Chhatra Shibir... the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh... fiercely clashed with police in Dhaka and elsewhere in the country for a second consecutive day yesterday.

In several districts outside the capital, the Jamaat-Shibir men attacked the law enforcers with sticks, brickbats and handmade cocktails. At least 86 coppers and two journalists were maimed in their attacks across the country.

The unruly Islamist party men also looted a shotgun from a policeman in Noakhali and a rifle from another policeman in Rajshahi, police said.

The festivities began as the law enforcers tried to intercept the processions the Jamaat-Shibir men brought out demanding the immediate release of their leaders, including the nine tossed in the calabooseKeep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! on war crimes charges.

Besides Dhaka, Rajshahi and Noakhali, festivities also took place in Chittagong, Sylhet, Bogra, Pabna, Sirajganj, however, avoided direct replies to those.

In reply to a question, he said, "The aim of the visit [of Khaleda] was to raise before the Indian leaders different bilateral issues unresolved for years." And it had nothing to do with BNP's going to power, he added.

At one stage, Tariqul asked in a loud voice, "Don't you [media] want that BNP builds good relations with India? Will Awami League alone maintain good relations with them?" It is not the exclusive right of any party to have friendly ties with a country, he said.

"Our relationship with India will be on the basis of equality, dignity and illusory sovereignty," the BNP leader told a questioner.

He also said no discussion on Bangladesh's politics and election was held during Khaleda ZiaThree-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ...'s visit since those are "our internal affairs".

Tariqul mentioned that during her (BNP chief's) talks with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi, she assured that her party would not allow any separatist outfit of India to use Bangladesh land.

"No discussion was held on giving transit to India. We rather discussed greater connectivity. "

He also said Khaleda Zia welcomed the idea of a consortium including India and China for establishing a deep-sea port in the Bay of Bengal.

[Dawn] Prime Minster Raja Pervez Ashraf on Tuesday, by taking serious notice of deteriorating law and order situation in Bloody Karachi...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... and Hyderabad, ordered immediate action against the culprits, DawnNews reported.

In the meantime, observing unrest and violence in the second largest city of Sindh for the fourth day in a row, Administrator Barkat Rizvi has imposed a ban on pillion-riding in Hyderabad.

The ban has been imposed under section 144, which immune journalists, women and kiddies of ages 12 or below.

The prime minister has ordered IG Sindh police and DG rangers to take immediate steps for restoring peace in both the cities. He also ordered strict actions against the culprits on urgent basis.

Meanwhile,...back at the bake sale, Umberto's Mom's cannoli were a big hit... at least ten people, including religious leader Agha Aftab Haider Jaffery, were rubbed out in the metropolis on Tuesday.

Moreover, there was a report of a suspicious package near near Jinnah's mausoleum at Bloody Karachi's M A Jinnah road. A bomb disposal squad (BDS) reached the site and defused the explosive which weighed five kilograms.

Three people were killed and two sustained injuries on Tuesday when unidentified gunnies attacked a yellow cab at Quetta's Spiny Road, DawnNews reported.

According to police sources, the unidentified cycle of violence riders shot up the cab, which was carrying five people to a town in Hazara district, injuring all passengers.

Three of five injured shuffled off the mortal coil while being taken to the Bolan Medical Complex.

The attackers escaped the site immediately after the incident, said a police official.

A heavy contingent of police and Frontier Constabulary (FC) cordoned off the area and initiated an investigation.

The incident forced many shop owners to shut their shops and small business in the area. Many enraged residents also came out on roads to protest against the attack and shouted slogans against the government. They set blaze tyres in front of the hospital as well.

The police have declared that the attack was an incident of assassination.

The victims are yet to be identified but Balochistan...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... is rife with sectarian violence, where several people, particularly Shia Hazaras have been targeted in the recent past.

Moreover, there was a report of a suspicious package near near Jinnah's mausoleum at Bloody Karachi...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...'s M A Jinnah road. A bomb disposal squad (BDS) reached the site and defused the explosive which weighed five kilograms.

Earlier yesterday, Rangers, after conducting an operation in the city's Gulistan-e-Johar area cooled for a few yearsPlease don't kill me! two men who were suspected of being associated with a banned party.

[Dawn] Four persons were killed and two others injured when assailants attacked two vehicles in different areas of North Wazoo Agency.

The political administration imposed curfew in major towns of the tribal region and launched search operation after the incidents.

Sources said that three members of Wazir tribe were killed when their vehicle was attacked by person or persons unknown near Epi area of Mir Ali tehsil. They said that members of Wazir tribe were going to their homes from Mir Ali Bazaar. All the three rustics were killed on the spot, they added.

Sources said that the assailants managed to escape. The authorities imposed curfew in Mir Ali and launched a search operation.

In the second incident, a driver of Frontier Works Organisation was killed and two of his colleagues were maimed when their vehicle was attacked by assailants on Miranshah... headquarters of al-Qaeda in Pakistain and likely location of Ayman al-Zawahiri. The Haqqani network has established a ministate in centered on the town with courts, tax offices and lots of madrassas...-Mir Ali Road. The dear departed was identified as Akram Khan.

The political administration ordered imposition of curfew on Bannu-Miranshah Road. All educational institutions, government offices and shops at Miranshah Bazaar were closed after the incident. In Mohmand Agency... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar..., two security personnel sustained injuries when a jacket wallahwent kaboom!" in front of the office of assistant political agent in Yakaghund on Monday.

Officials said that the bomber wanted to target APA office but he failed to reach his target owing to strict security arrangements.

The bomber went kaboom!" when he sensed that Khasadar personnel could arrest him, they added.

They said that subedar Javed and sepoy Rehman were maimed in the blast. The injured were shifted to Beautiful Downtown Peshawar...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.at death's door.

APA Fahad Wazir told journalists that the bomber was about 25-year-old and seemed a non-local. He said that about five kilograms of explosives were used in the blast.

Officials said that they received information that a suicide bomber had entered the area and APA office was his apparent target.

Strict security measures were taken and the attempt to target APA office was foiled, they added.

Security forces cordoned off bazaars in Yakaghund, Main Mandi and Ghalanai and launched a search operation. However,a clean conscience makes a soft pillow... no arrest was made. The main Peshawar-Bajaur Road remained closed to traffic for more than four hours. It is pertinent to mention here that 110 persons were killed and over 120 injured in a suicide kaboom on the same office on July 9, 2010.

[An Nahar] A car boomwent kaboom! Tuesday at the entrance to an Iraqi army base as potential new recruits were massed at the gate, killing at least 25 people, security and medical officials said.

The blast, which also left at least 30 people maimed, is likely to raise fresh concerns over the capabilities of Iraq's security forces 11 months after the departure of American troops.

Tuesday's bombing struck at around midday (09:00 GMT) in the town of Taji, 25 kilometers north of Storied Baghdad...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate...An interior ministry official put the toll at 26 dead and 30 maimed, while a medic said 25 people had died and 40 were hurt. It was not immediately clear how many of the victims were soldiers or new recruits.

Differing tolls and breakdowns of casualty figures are common in the chaotic aftermath of violence in Iraq.

The blast struck as the base was holding a recruitment day to welcome potential new soldiers, events which have previously been targets of faceless myrmidons intent on carrying out mass-casualty attacks in Iraq.

On January 18, 2011, a suicide kaboom in the middle of a crowd of police recruits in Tikrit, north of Storied Baghdad, killed 50 people and maimed 150, and on August 17, 2010, another suicide kaboomer killed 59 army recruits and maimed 125 others.

Iraq's security forces are seen as capable of largely maintaining internal stability, despite regular deadly attacks nationwide, but are widely acknowledged to be unable to protect the country's borders, airspace or maritime territory.

No group immediately owned up to Tuesday's attack although al-Qaeda's front group in Iraq has claimed credit for previous attacks on recruitment centers.

[An Nahar] At least 131 people were killed as bombings, festivities and air strikes shook Syria on Tuesday, a rights watchdog said.

In the capital Damascus...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti..., gunnies shot and killed the brother of Syria's parliament speaker as he drove to work, the state-run news agency...and if you can't believe the state-run news agency who can you believe?... reported.

It was the latest in a wave of liquidations targeting Syrian officials, army officers and other prominent supporters of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-AssadOppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs...'s regime.

Four of the president's top security aides were killed in a rebel bombing of state security headquarters in Damascus on July 18, including the defense minister and Assad's brother-in-law.

The SANA news agency said Mohammed Osama Laham, brother of Parliament Speaker Jihad Laham, was killed in the Damascus neighborhood of Midan.

In the latest in a wave of kabooms, at least 10 non-combatants were killed and 40 maimed as three blasts hit the west Damascus suburb of Qudsaya on Tuesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

"At least 10 non-combatants were killed and more than 40 maimed, some at death's door, when three improvised bombs detonated in the working-class district of Waroud in the suburb of Qudsaya," the Britannia-based watchdog said.

State news agency SANA also reported casualties from a bombing in the area, without giving an exact toll.

Meanwhile,...back at the palazzo, Count Guido had escaped from his bonds and overwhelmed this guard using the bludgeon the faithful Filomena had smuggled to him in the loaf of bread... rebels ambushed a military convoy in Idlib province, their stronghold in the northwest, killing at least 12 troops and wounding 20, the Observatory said.

"At least 12 regime troops were killed and at least 20 maimed by improvised bombs, gunfire and mortar rounds that targeted their trucks, bus and armored personnel carriers near the town of Mohambal," the watchdog said.

The ambush triggered heavy fighting... as opposed to the more usual light or desultory fighting... around the town, which was hit by three air strikes, the Observatory added.

The festivities came after a rebel car boom killed 50 pro-regime fighters at a military post in the central province of Hama on Monday.

A bomb went kaboom! before dawn in the city of Mudamiya near the capital, causing injuries and significant damage, the Observatory said.

A second rigged vehicle exploded Tuesday morning in the southern Damascus suburb of Sayyida Zeinab, causing damage but no casualties according to the Observatory, which relies on a countrywide network of activists and medics.

Also on Tuesday, the regime renewed air strikes across the country, dropping two bombs in the heart of Douma northeast of the capital, and hitting targets in the northern province of Aleppo...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... and the eastern city of Deir Ezzor.

Seven civilians died in air strikes on the central town of Houla, the site of a massacre in which 108 people, the majority women and kiddies, were killed in May.

Warplanes also bombarded the northwestern Idlib town of Maaret al-Numan, seized by rebels nearly a month ago, while fighting broke out around the nearby military base at Wadi Daif and near the town of Jisr al-Shughour.

The embattled regime of Assad has increasingly relied on its air power to try and fight back rebel gains on the ground.

Fighting was also raging in northern commercial hub Aleppo, where two rebels were killed, while another two died in Homs city, the Britannia-based Observatory said.

[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri... Formerly second in command of al-Qaeda, now the head cheese, occasionally described as the real brains of the outfit. Formerly the Mister Big of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Bumped off Abdullah Azzam with a car boom in the course of one of their little disputes. Is thought to have composed bin Laden's fatwa entitled World Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusaders. Currently residing in the North Wazoo area. That is not a horn growing from the middle of his forehead, but a prayer bump, attesting to how devout he is... has urged all Mohammedans to support Somalia's Islamist Al-Shabaab... the personification of Somali state failure... myrmidons, the SIE monitoring website reported Tuesday.

The Shabaab, a group which has been battling the Western-backed government in Somalia and proclaims allegiance to Al-Qaeda, has in recent months suffered several major setbacks.

An offensive led by African Union...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... troops has stripped the Shabaab of most of their former bastions, including the southern port of Kismayu, a key asset Kenyan forces wrested back just over a month ago.

"This is a flagrant Crusader invasion of the Mohammedan countries and it makes jihad obligatory on every Mohammedan who is capable in Somalia and its surroundings and in the rest of the world until the invaders are expelled," the SITE Intelligence Group quoted Zawahiri as saying.

"Don't worry about the numbers of the Crusaders and their equipment, for these are spoils of war that are brought to you by the help of Allah," Zawahiri said.

"Therefore, make them taste the fire of jihad and its heat. Pursue them with guerrilla warfare, ambushes and martyrdom-seekers."

The website said the Shabaab had also posted several messages on the Internet vowing to intensify attacks in Mogadishu.

Since the Shabaab abandoned fixed positions in Mogadishu last year, under pressure from African Union troops, the war-ravaged seaside capital has been slowly coming back to life.

The Shabaab once controlled up to 80 percent of southern and central Somalia and the recent African offensive dashed their hopes of taking power.

A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.